The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-07-24
DEFYTNG THE PREACHERS
BROKERS' CLAIM WALL STREET
IS NOT A GAMBLING DEN.


Jameson and Other Kings of Finance
Saw That They and Their Business
Have Been Misrepresented- They
Tall ofthe Good Which the Stock Ex-
change Has Done-Hinting That the
Parsons are Soreheads Who Have
Exnerimented on Change
paws no More Attention to Them
Than to the Anarchists.
NEW YORK, July % Wall street! A
name to coniure with, synonym of bound
less wealth, a maelstrom of molten gold that
svirls and swirls forever, sezing all that
comes within its grasp with a clutch that
dAfes escape; dashing some to destruction
IN hidden rocks and throwing others up to
the dizzy pinnacle of the highest wave.
What fascination it has to men, and even
women who look at 1t.
Few outside of the street itself understand
the WAYS and methods of financers and
brokers, nor can they tell how the sudden
rise to wealth or fall to poverty has hap
pened. They do, perhaps, have a dim
conception of some ways in which manipu-
lation may be applied to stocks to make
them shrink or rise i'll value, but precisely
how such results may be brought about is
what they are profoundly ignorant of.
This ignorance has resulted in producing
kind of superstitious feeling against
Wall street among quiet people who have
never specialized. To them the Stock
Exchange is the temple of the golden calf
and all the brokers are demented worship
erS.
The recent paSSage-at-armS between
Gould, Sage and Field has been made the
occasion of a spirited charge on the herds of
Wall street by several prominent clergy
men in different parts of the country. In
deed, for many years great number of
preachers in the United States have used
the Stock Exchange and the brokers who do
business in it as a kind of stock evil. When
there has been nothing else particular on
hand to denounce they have poured out the
walls of their wrath on Wall street, using it
as a synonym for Sodom, and referring to
fine buvers and sellers of stocks and bonds as
somewhat worse than ordinary thieves and
gamblers Last Sunday the subject was the
theme of scores of pulpits on account of the
recent furry.
Brokers are thick-skinned and can stand
good deal of denunciation, but it occurred
to the writer of this article that it was about
time to give them an opportunity to tell
whether they really were such bad men as
the preachers made out, and what made
them so, if they were bad, and whether
there was no hope of religious and moral
revival among them. The writer thought
also that, seeing that the ministers had been
so frank in their expression of opinions
about brokers, the brokers might be INDUCED
to be equally frank in expressing ta4iI'
views about ministers. Therefore n
sat ont on what nrOVpd q very iDtprpStiO
tour.
Mr.. Washington E. COnnor, who was for
50 many years Mr.. Gould's partner, still
carries on the business at the old stand, Il
Broadway. He proved to be a man who
did not scruple to speak his mind with great
plainnesS when the subject and the questions
it suggested were presented to him. He
said
"a minister who is intelligent must have
broad mind and only give as facts what
he knows to be such. Statements coming
from any others are not worthy of a mo
ment's consideration. | have never yet
seen Wall street attacked or the New York
Stock Exchange assailed as a gambling in
stltution by any man whose intelligence |
could respect. | have the greatest contempt
for bigotry in any form and don't care fG
the opinions of bigots. The business of Wall
street is the same as any other business; real
toldUt, lOi lilhldllCt. LOdy ii llidIl WANTS W
buy an improved piece of property for $780,
OOO. He pays So, 900 in cash and gives a
mOrtage for the balance. If his judgment
is good and the property advances he makes
aprOiit, and if his Judgment is poor and the
property depreciates he makes loss Some
times the depreciation may be so great as
TO wipe out all the cash invested and not
leave enough value to pay for the mortgage.
Now man in Wall street selects a railroad
AZ 1 ~
half cash. the broker who carries the stock
advancing the balance. If the purchaser
selects the stock of a railroad running
through growing centre and one that is
We'll managed he will make a profit. Ii, on
the other hand, he does not make wise
selection he will make loss. To my mind
5he transaction in stocks and the transac-
Ion in real estate are precisely similar.
There is not any business in the world where
men are as honorable and true to their words
Us the men of Wall street. Transactions
INVOLVING millions of dollars in value are
made every day by mere verbal agreement
nd dispute of any kind among the parties
taxing such transaction is very rare |
iSllke very much to meet q question of this
ma because | think it can only be raised
people of narrow minds who do not take
letroublet to become acquainted with facts.
Is very simple thing to start an evil
uIlor. MOSt people seem TO be born with a
Sposltlon to accept without question any
alclous statement that may be made about
individual or individuals The ministers
I'VE no more right to condemn brokers as a
dy Tor the faults of a few than the brok-
nave to condemn the ministers for the
rors and sins which members Of their body
cdSlohally commit, much to tho scandal
the community. This is great country
Feloped by railroads. To have railroads
u must have securities like stocks and
hdS and to sell tho stocks and bonds
must have brokers. TO tell the
tJh, don't papany more attention to the
IerahceS Of preachers who attack Wall
ecu IMAM | Go 20 the utterance5 of the
WlchiSts, Herr Most and Schwab and the
cI" lhey condemn a class upon tho
NG OF one man and they never take the
'uo!o 70 find out whether or not he is
dhihg tho truth I respect such
niS1ers and their congregations just as
zen as do the Anarchists and not one bit
Iren
Ut, James d. Smith. President Of the
orK Stock Exchange was enjoying
l,,9grance of n fine cigar III his office in
inuiS Building on Broad street, near
~ "herc the writer stalked him. After
fhlisng that he was the son Of minister
isons he said:
hI1r httlo more than twenty years
r' peeh broker and banker in Wall
~ before that time / had been engaged
NIUE ".t.rGahtile pursuits. have been much
S,J JD Ihe world and have associated with